Transcriber's Notes.
This book shows a world where character and morality are prized. The goal
of camp is not just to get the boys out the parents' hair, but to
encourage good character and citizenship. Camp leaders are enticed by the
contribution they can make to the boys' futures and are selected (or
rejected) based on their own moral virtues.
There are many practical suggestions for safety and comfort aside from the
absence of modern materials and conveniences, like nylon and gas stoves.
Medical advice given in the book is from 1913 and may be unhelpful, often
contradicts current practice and involves unsafe or now illegal
substances.
The approximate conversion for prices is 20 to 1, $1 in 1913 is about $20
in 2004.
[Illustration: Photograph by Joseph Legg]
The Heart of the Camp
Have you smelled wood smoke at twilight?
Have you heard the birch log burning?
Are you quick to read the noises of the night?
You must follow with the others for the young men's feet are turning
To the camps of proved desire and known delight.
From Kipling's "Feet of the Young Men."
CAMPING FOR BOYS
H. W. GIBSON
ASSOCIATION PRESS
NEW YORK
1913
Copyright, 1911, by the
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS
TO
THE THOUSAND AND MORE BOYS WHO HAVE BEEN MY CAMP MATES IN CAMPS SHAND,
DURRELL AND BECKET
CONTENTS
Foreword
General Bibliography
I. The Purpose of Camping
II. Leadership; Bibliography (See General Bibliography)
III. Location and Sanitation; Bibliography
IV. Camp Equipment
V. Personal Check List or Inventory
VI. Organization, Administration and Discipline
VII. The Day's Program; Bibliography
VIII. Moral and Religious Life; Bibliography
IX. Food
X. The Camp Fire; Bibliography
XI. Tramps, Hikes and Overnight Trips
XII. Cooking on Hikes; Bibliography
XIII. Health and Hygiene; Bibliography
XIV. Simple Remedies
XV. First Aid
XVI. Personal Hygiene
XVII. Athletics, Campus Games, Aquatics, Water Sports; Bibliography
XVIII. Nature Study; Bibliography
XIX. Forecasting the Weather; Bibliography
XX. Rainy Day Games; Bibliography
XXI. Educational Activities; Bibliography
XXII. Honor, Emblems and Awards
XXIII. Packing Up
Index.
FOREWORD
The author has conducted boys' camps for twenty-three years, so that he is
not without experience in the subject. To share with others this
experience has been his aim in writing the book. The various chapters have
been worked out from a practical viewpoint, the desire being to make a
handbook of suggestions for those in charge of camps for boys and for boys
who go camping, rather than a theoretical treatise upon the general
subject.
Thanks are due to E. M. Robinson, Dr. Elias G. Brown, Charles R. Scott,
Irving G. MacColl, J. A. Van Dis, Taylor Statten, W. H. Wones, H. C.
Beckman, W. H. Burger, H. M. Burr, A. B. Wegener, A. D. Murray, and H. M.
Allen, for valuable suggestions and ideas incorporated in many chapters.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission
to quote from the books mentioned in the bibliography--Charles Scribner's
Sons, Harper Brothers, Outing Publishing Company, Baker & Taylor Company,
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Penn Publishing Company, Doubleday, Page &
Company, Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, Ginn & Company, Sunday School Times
Company, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Little, Brown & Company, Moffat, Yard &
Company, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Sturgis & Walton, Funk & Wagnall's
Company, The Manual Arts Press, Frederick Warne & Company, Review and
Herald Publishing Company, Health-Education League, Pacific Press
Publishing Company.
Every leader, before going to camp, should read some book upon boy life,
in order, not only that he may refresh his memory regarding his own
boyhood days, but that he may also the more intelligently fit himself for
the responsibility of leadership. The following books, or similar ones,
may be found in any well-equipped library.
If this book will help some man to be of greater service to boys, as well
as to inspire boys to live the noble life which God's great out-of-doors
teaches, the author will feel amply repaid for his labor. Boston, Mass.,
April, 1911.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Boy-Life and Self Government--Fiske. Association Press, $1.00.
Boy-Training--Symposium. Association Press, $1.00.
Youth--Hall. Appleton and Company, $1.50.
Winning the Boy--Merrill. Revell and Company, $0.75.
The Boy Problem--Forbush. Pilgrim Press, $1.00.
Up Though Childhood--Hubbell. Putnam and Company, $1.25.
Growth and Education--Tyler. Houghton, Mifflin Company, $1.50.
SUGGESTIVE ARTICLES ON "CAMPING" IN "ASSOCIATION BOYS";
A Course in Camping--Edgar M. Robinson. Feb., 1902.
The Sanitary Care of a Boys' Camp--Elias G. Brown, M.D.
April and June, 1902.
Seventeen Seasons in One Boys' Camp--G. G. Peck. April. 1902.
Association Boys' Camps--Edgar M. Robinson. June, 1902.
Following Up Camp--Editorial. October, 1902.
What Men Think of Camp--Edgar M. Robinson. June, 1903.
Fun Making at Camp--C.B. Harton. June. 1903.
Educational Possibilities at Camp--F. P. Speare. June, 1903.
Bible Study at Camp--Raymond P. Kaighn. June, 1903.
Simple Remedies at Camp--Elias G. Brown, M.D. June, 1903.
Tuxis System--H.L. Smith. April, 1904.
Life at Camp Dudley--Raymond P. Kaighn. June, 1905.
Life-Saving Crew--F.H.T. Ritchie. June. 1905.
Summer Camps--Frank Streightoff. June, 1905.
Wawayanda Camp--Chas. R. Scott. June. 1907.
Objectives in Camps for Boys--Walter M. Wood. June, 1907.
CHAPTER I THE PURPOSE OF CAMPING
VACATION TIME
NEED OF OUTDOOR LIFE
PURPOSE OF CAMPING
"TOO MUCH HOUSE"
A QUERY
APOSTLES OF OUTDOOR LIFE
HEEDING NATURE'S CALL
CHARACTER BUILDING
CAMP MOTTOES
"ROUGH-HOUSE"
CAMPS
BOY SCOUTS
INFLUENCE OF CAMP LIFE
It is great fun to live in the glorious open air, fragrant with the smell
of the woods and flowers; it is fun to swim and fish and hike it over the
hills; it is fun to sit about the open fire and spin yarns, or watch in
silence the glowing embers; but the greatest fun of all is to win the love
and confidence of some boy who has been a trouble to himself and everybody
else, and help him to become a man.--H. M. Burr.
The summer time is a period of moral deterioration with most boys. Free
from restraint of school and many times of home, boys wander during the
vacation time into paths of wrongdoing largely because of a lack of
directed play life and a natural outlet for the expenditure of their
surplus energy. The vacation problem therefore becomes a serious one for
both the boy and his parent. Camping offers a solution.
The Need
"A boy in the process of growing needs the outdoors. He needs room and
range. He needs the tonic of the hills, the woods and streams. He needs to
walk under the great sky, and commune with the stars. He needs to place
himself where nature can speak to him. He ought to get close to the soil.
He ought to be toughened by sun and wind, rain and cold. Nothing can take
the place, for the boy, of stout physique, robust health, good blood, firm
muscles, sound nerves, for these are the conditions of character and
efficiency. The early teens are the most important years for the boy
physically... Through the ages of thirteen and fifteen the more he can be
in the open, free from social engagements and from continuous labor or
study, the better. He should fish, swim, row and sail, roam the woods and
the waters, get plenty of vigorous action, have interesting, healthful
things to think about."--Prof. C. W. Votaw.
The Purpose
This is the real purpose of camping--"something to do, something to think
about, something to enjoy in the woods, with a view always to
character-building"--this is the way Ernest Thompson-Seton, that master
wood-craftsman, puts it. Character building! What a great objective! It
challenges the best that is in a man or boy. Camping is an experience, not
an institution. It is an experience which every live, full-blooded,
growing boy longs for, and happy the day of his realization. At the first
sign of spring, back yards blossom forth with tents of endless variety. To
sleep out, to cook food, to search for nature's fascinating secrets, to
make things--all are but the expression of that instinct for freedom of
living in the great out-of-doors which God created within him.
Too Much House
"Too much house," says Jacob Riis; "Civilization has been making of the
world a hothouse. Man's instinct of self-preservation rebels; hence the
appeal for the return to the simple life that is growing loud." Boys need
to get away from the schoolroom and books, and may I say the martyrdom of
examinations, high marks, promotions and exhibitions! Medical examinations
of school children reveal some startling facts. Why should boys suffer
from nerves? Are we sacrificing bodily vigor for abnormal intellectual
growth? Have we been fighting against instead of cooperating with nature?
The tide is turning, however, and the people are living more and more in
the open. Apostles of outdoor life like Henry D. Thoreau, John Burroughs,
William Hamilton Gibson, Howard Henderson, Ernest Thompson-Seton, Frank
Beard, Horace Kephart, Edward Breck, Charles Stedman Hanks, Stewart Edward
White, "Nessmuck," W. C. Gray, and a host of others, have, through their
writings, arrested the thought of busy people long enough to have them see
the error of their ways and are bringing them to repentance.
Camps for boys are springing up like mushrooms. Literally thousands of
boys who have heretofore wasted the glorious summer time loafing on the
city streets, or as disastrously at summer hotels or amusement places, are
now living during the vacation time under nature's canopy of blue with
only enough covering for protection from rain and wind, and absorbing
through the pores of their body that vitality which only pure air,
sunshine, long hours of sleep, wholesome food, and reasonable discipline
can supply.
Character Building
In reading over scores of booklets and prospectuses of camps for boys, one
is impressed with their unanimity of purpose--that of character building.
These are a few quotations taken from a variety of camp booklets:
"The object of the camp is healthful recreation without temptation."
"A camp where boys live close to nature, give themselves up to play,
acquire skill in sports, eat plenty of wholesome food, and sleep long
hours ... and are taught high ideals for their own lives."
"To give boys a delightful summer outing under favorable conditions, and
to give them every opportunity to become familiar with camp life in all
its phases. We believe this contributes much to the upbuilding of a boy's
character and enables him to get out of life much enjoyment that would not
otherwise be possible."
"A place where older boys, boys of the restless age, may live a happy,
carefree, outdoor life, free from the artificialities and pernicious
influences of the larger cities"; a place where "all the cravings of a
real boy are satisfied"; a place "where constant association with
agreeable companions and the influence of well-bred college men in a clean
and healthy moral atmosphere make for noble manhood; a place where
athletic sports harden the muscles, tan the skin, broaden the shoulders,
brighten the eye, and send each lad back to his school work in the fall as
brown as a berry and as hard as nails."
"A camp of ideals, not a summer hotel nor a supplanter of the home. The
principal reason for its existence is the providing of a safe place for
parents to send their boys during the summer vacation, where, under the
leadership of Christian men, they may be developed physically, mentally,
socially, and morally."
Whether the camp is conducted under church, settlement, Young Men's
Christian Association, or private auspices, the prime purpose of its
existence should be that of character building.
"Because of natural, physical, social, educational, moral, and religious
conditions, the boy is taught those underlying principles which determine
character. The harder things a boy does or endures, the stronger man he
will become; the more unselfish and noble things he does, the better man
he will become."
No Rough-house
The day of the extreme "rough-house" camp has passed. Boys have discovered
that real fun does not mean hurting or discomforting others, but consists
in making others happy. The boy who gets the most out of camp is the boy
who puts the most into camp.
Mottoes
Many camps build their program of camp activities around a motto
such as
"Each for All, and All for Each,"
"Help the Other Fellow,"
"Do Your Best,"
"Nothing Without Labor,"
"A Gentleman Always," and
"I Can and I Will."
Scout Law
Endurance, self-control, self-reliance, and unselfishness are taught the
"Boy Scouts" through what is called the "Scout Law."
(1) A Scout's honor is to be trusted;
(2) Be loyal;
(3) Do a good turn to somebody every day;
(4) Be a friend to all;
(5) Be courteous;
(6) Be a friend to animals;
(7) Be obedient;
(8) Be cheerful;
(9) Be thrifty.
All these are valuable, because they contribute to the making of
character.
In the conduct of a boys' camp there must be a definite clear-cut purpose
if satisfactory results are to be obtained. A go-as-you-please or
do-as-you please camp will soon become a place of harm and moral
deterioration.
Results
Camping should give to the boy that self-reliance which is so essential in
the making of a life, that faith in others which is the foundation of
society, that spirit of altruism which will make him want to be of service
in helping other fellows, that consciousness of God as evidenced in His
handiwork which will give him a basis of morality, enduring and
reasonable, and a spirit of reverence for things sacred and eternal. He
ought to have a better appreciation of his home after a season away from
what should be to him the sweetest place on earth.